How to transfer recordings from one EHD to another.

Last week I attempted to move the recordings from a 250 GB EHD to a new 500 GB EHD using Ghost. I had to upgrade the EHD because L449 broke playback from the 250 GB EHD. While I'm sure imaging using Ghost works, I would've lost the extra space from the new 500 GB. So I attempted a second time using an Ubuntu box and I was succesful. I'm sure this can be done with any Linux box.

I don't believe I'm doing anything illegal here but if the mods feel this is not appropiate go ahead and remove it. All I did was copy directories from one drive to the other. This procedure should help others move their recordings from one EHD to another one for whatever reason.

This is what's needed:

2 USB drives
622/722 receiver
Computer with Ubuntu installed and enough disk space to copy recordings (explained why below).

When you connect an external HD to Ubuntu, it will display two partitions. The first one is a 1.0 GB partition and has one folder "Lost+Found". The second partition is where all your recordings are and the size depends on the size of your EHD. The second partition has two folders, "Lost+Found" and "DishArc". Your recordings are in the "DishArc" folder, under some folder name like "20b0dec0". Each of these folders have 4 files, "bm", "cat", "tsp", and "wtt". I won't go into any details for the files as they're encrypted.

Here is the procedure:

- Connect new EHD to the 622/722 receiver and let it format and create the new partitions.

- I could not connect the two USB drives at the same time in Ubuntu so I had to connect the old EHD to Ubuntu first and copy the folders from "DishArc" to a directory in Ubuntu. I used the Desktop since I was just testing a couple of folders. You should create a new folder in the Desktop and copy your recordings there. Example: "Recordings". If you can connect both EHD drives at the same time, just wait until you have write access to the folder "DishArc" to copy your recordings from old EHD to new EHD.

- When finished copying the recordings, disconnect old EHD and connect new EHD. You don't need to if you're able to see both at the same time in Ubunutu.

- Open a Terminal session by going to Applications, Accessories, Terminal.

- Change to super user by typing "sudo -i"

- Type "fdisk -l" to list your drives and note your USB drive. In my case, it was listed as "/dev/sdb1".

- Type "mount /dev/sdb1" to mount the USB drive. It will tell you that is already mounted but it will also show the USB EHD directory. In my case it showed "/media/disk-1" and I'll need that for the next step.

- Change to that directory by typing "cd /media/disk-1". You can do a listing to see if the two folders are there by typing "ls -l". You should see two directories, "DishArc" and "Lost+Found".

- Change the permissions for the folder "DishArc" so your username will have write access to it. Type "chown randalla DishArc". Of course, you'll use your username. Leave Terminal open, we'll come back to change the permissions back to root.

- Go back to the Desktop and open the second partition for your USB drive and look for the folder DishArc. Copy all your recordings from the Desktop to the "DishArc" folder in the EHD. If you were able to connect both drives at the same time, just copy the recordings from the "DishArc" directory on one EHD to the other.

- When you are finished copying the recordings, go back to terminal and type "chown root DishArc". This is to put the permission back to root.

- Connect the new EHD drive to your 622/722 receiver and you should be able to play the recordings.

I would like to try moving a recording from an EHD married to receiver A to an EHD married to receiver B. This way you don't have the limitation of 3 moves. I would try that in the next few days.

Edit: I just tried moving a recording from the EHD connected to a 722 receiver (Receiver A) to a 622 receiver (Receiver B). The procedure lets you copy the directory, you can also view it on the 622 when you go to the EHD but it won't play on the 622. I just got a black screen and had to press "Live TV" to get out it.

I just did this with the Ubuntu Live CD, I did it on my Windows computer and all I needed to do was boot from the Ubuntu CD. There's a minor change in the procedure when you boot from the Live CD since there are no users but the root user. You computer will also need to see both EHD drive at the same time since you're running from the CD not the Hard Drive and you won't be able to copy the directories to a CD.

Instead of using "chown randalla DishArc" you will need to use "chmod 777 DishArc" to have write access to the folder. Once you're finished moving the directories, change back the permission by typing "chmod 755 DishArc".

ekengle said:

Here is another question. Is there a way to view or find out the names of any of the files before you transfer them over to the larger drive. That way you know what you are moving and don't have to move everything, just the ones you want dual copies of?

Click to expand...

Good question. Actually there is one way to see what you're actually moving. Open either the file "cat" or the "bm" in a text editor and you'll see the description. The "tsp" file is the show itself and since it's encrypted, I didn't do anything with it.